Frequently Asked Questions

Offers

How do I make an Offer to someone to produce my audiobook on ACX?

Whenever you’re a Rights Holder, a narrator, or a studio professional looking at the profile of a Producer, you’ll see a button labeled “Make Offer.” Clicking this will start the process of making an agreement or deal.

Tip for making offers: If you are a Rights Holder or Producer looking for a narrator, ACX recommends that you request an audition before you make an Offer to a narrator. This step isn’t required, but we’ve made it easy, so why not try before you buy?

When you’re a Rights Holder ready to make an Offer to a Producer, the first step is to decide how you want to pay. Do you want to pay them for their efforts upon completion of the audiobook (a fee per finished hour, as part of a Pay For Production deal) or do you prefer to split your royalties with them fifty-fifty (as part of a Royalty Share deal)? You will be faced with this choice before you can send them the Offer. Also, make sure that that you’re certain of the terms you’re proposing, because you’re about to enter into a binding agreement. Yes, the Offer process results in an official (in other words, legal) contract. No additional paperwork will be required.

IMPORTANT:To be sure that you end up with a binding contract, please work out all details of your Offer via ACX, using our internal messaging system (simply by clicking “Send Message” on the Producer’s profile). If you negotiate and agree to details via some other channel—phone, video chat, whatever—those details aren’t going to be reflected in our system, and you might not end up with the contract you want, or any contract at all. And that’s not the safest way to work. We built the ACX offer and acceptance process to be sure that it’s clear what’s being offered, accepted, and expected. The process makes it easy to understand when you are—and when you are not—legally bound by a communication on ACX. That’s for everyone’s protection, including yours.

Some of the other basic rules that apply to Offers (you can read the full Offer and Acceptance Procedures here) are below:

  1. If, as the Rights Holder, you make an Offer to a Producer, the Offer will be valid until one of the following things happen: the expiration date in your Offer expires, your Offer is accepted by a participating ACX Producer, or you remove your Offer from ACX.
  2. If, as a Producer, you accept an Offer, you will not be in a binding agreement with the Rights Holder who made the Offer until you get a confirmation that they’ve accepted.
  3. A Rights Holder can only make one Offer at a time for the same rights or services.
  4. A Producer’s acceptance must be on the same terms as the Offer, with no changes. Trying to accept an Offer with changed terms won’t result in a valid contract between you and the participating ACX Rights Holder who sent you the Offer. If either party wants to adjust the terms, the Producer should decline the initial Offer (or let it expire), then the Rights Holder should make a new Offer that reflects that.

As a Rights Holder, can I negotiate with Producers I find on ACX?

Sure. It’s fine if you’re not yet ready to be bound by a production agreement with a Producer. Do a little due diligence first—ask a few Producers to audition and search for interesting Producers on ACX Send the Producers that intrigue you a message (each profile you look at will show a “Send Message” option); begin discussing acceptable rates and feasible timelines. You can also communicate with multiple ACX participants to explore potential offer terms. Then, when you’re ready to enter into a binding agreement, use the ACX Offer process to conclude your deal.

IMPORTANT: To be sure that you end up with a binding contract, please work out all Offer details using the ACX system. If you negotiate and agree to details via some other channel—phone, video chat, whatever—those details won’t be reflected in our system, meaning that you might not end up with the contract you want, or any contract at all. That’s not the safest way to work. We built the ACX offer and acceptance process to be sure that it’s clear what’s being offered, accepted, and expected. The process makes it easy to understand when you’re—and when you aren’t—legally bound by a communication on ACX. That’s for everyone’ protection, including yours.

Why do Offers for productions made under Royalty Share deals have to have exclusive ACX distribution?

When a Producer accepts an Offer with a Royalty Share deal, they’re accepting that they won’t be paid the traditional flat fee upon completion of the audiobook. Instead, they’re risking their own skin in the game and getting to share in half the royalties. This marks a new way of doing business, and is a big leap of faith for a Producer. They need to be confident that they really will get 50 percent of all proceeds.

If the Rights Holder were to distribute the audiobook to retailers outside of ACX, or license the recording to a company overseas, or do anything else that generates revenue, it’s not going to be clear how the Producer would get paid for that. So because ACX can’t guarantee that the Producer would in fact get their fair share of any non-ACX-related revenues, we can’t go there. We need to be sure all participants are protected, know exactly what they can expect, and get compensated fairly. And that’s why all audiobooks produced on ACX under a Royalty Share deals must be exclusive to ACX (distributed through the industry leaders Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes).

Furthermore, we feel that a Producer accepting half of the exclusive Escalator Royalty Rate of 50-90 percent makes much better financial sense for them, than accepting half of the non-exclusive escalator royalty of 25-70 percent. We are looking out for the interests of everyone, Rights Holders and Producers.